Honestly I don't see the issue with a student driving an x-type. I was in high school when I bought mine, but paid every dime myself. My dad wanted to get rid of it, so I bought it from him (granted I received the "family discount" it wasn't insanely low for the mileage). I worked a lot of hours to pay for the car, and love it. I needed a reliable and safe car since I am still a senior in High scool , but I commute and take college level classes one year early . I am at the university until 10 o'clock + most nights, and drive on snowy back roads in ohio quite often that aren't well plowed. I love the car, and love it even more in the snow! It's the best snow car in my opinion. By this summer it will have close to 130K on it and so far very reliable.... knock on wood....

 

If you were driving a civic you would have neither of the issues you now have, the fact your having the issues yet driving with them only hilites the point being made here. A Jaguar is an expensive Europian car, they have no resale which gives the mistaken impression that they are affordable like a Civic, yet if not properly maintained are a money pit in your driveway with no bottom to it. AND THEY ARE NOT CHEAP TO MAINTAIN as you are finding out.

 

Don't mistake me as one of those ignorant owners that thinks any cheap car is going to be cheap to run. I'm definitely not unfamiliar with the world of unreliable cars. I came from the world of Mercedes where the saying "There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes" was very common. I had a 2002 ML320 (and am a moderator at benzworld.org one of the two largest MB forums out there); the M-Class was notorious for being the black eye in Mercedes reliability records. I got lucky as the entire time we had it I only had to bring it in a handful of times for warranty work that would have amounted to less than $500 each trip total and I never had to have any out of warranty work done on it besides maintenance which I DIYed everything.

I did my research for over half a year before getting another car. I looked at BMW 00-02 3-Series/99-02 5-Series, 00-03 Lincoln LS, 00-03 S-Type, and 02-04 X-Type for the area I was looking to buy from. I'm sure I could have done better than a 2002 X-Type with 100k if I had waited longer, but my car wasn't a bad deal to begin with so I went for it anyway. Knowing what I could be getting into with an older European car I added 1/3 the value of my car budget for immediate repairs ($2k repairs + $6k car = $8k total). I ended up with my X-Type for less than $5k, so now I'm ahead with $3k for repairs. Since I haven't done anything yet I just keep saving up and adding to that. When all repairs are done and I end up with some leftover, I'll just set that aside for any future repairs or I'll add that to my short term investments. If repairs end up being over my budget I'm still not sweating as I tend to budget very conservatively.

Of course nothing ever works out as expected, and I am prepared to accept the consequences if anything were to happen in the near future to catch me off guard. If the OP has done his/her homework, I say go for it if he really wants an X-Type.

 

Check on buying a warranty. It will save you alot of headache when the transmission or other big item part needs fixing. I bought one for 3K, because my mileage was higher, & already fix 6K of work.
Shop around for a warranty & I'm pretty sure you will find less than what I got.

Good luck & hope you get it.

 

i have a feeling hes not getting this car..he hasnt posted since jan27 in this thread.